New York, NY - September 19, 2017 - John H. Snyder PLLC has filed a countersuit against Rescuecom, a Syracuse-based IT consulting firm, on behalf of client Brian Ganey, alleging malicious prosecution and violation of state and Federal debt collection statutes.

In July 2016, Ganey hired Rescuecom to fix a problem with the router at his home. When Rescuecom failed to fix the problem, Ganey hired another company – ClickAway – who successfully fixed the router, charging less than $260.

That was when Ganey's nightmare with Rescuecom really began. Rescuecom first attempted to place more than $1,000 in charges on Ganey’s credit card. When Ganey objected, Rescuecom made up - out of whole cloth - a false accusation that Ganey had “hired away” the same Rescuecom technician who had originally failed to fix Ganey's router. Based on that falsehood, Rescuecom sued Ganey for $600,000, forcing Ganey to hire lawyers to defend him in a court 3,000 miles from Ganey's home in California.

Ganey provided Rescuecom with proof that Ganey did not hire away anybody - that the $600,000 lawsuit was totally meritless. Instead of apologizing, Rescuecom (through its counsel, Joseph R. Talarico II) continued its “buffoonish thuggery” against its customer by serving Ganey with an amended complaint, this time asserting a new claim for a paltry $360 – which is equally without merit.

Upon receiving this second frivolous lawsuit, Snyder filed a countersuit on Mr. Ganey’s behalf against Rescuecom and Attorney Talarico for malicious prosecution and violation of state and Federal debt collection laws. According to Ganey’s pleading:

Rescuecom’s original complaint in this matter, dated April 13, 2017, recklessly and frivolously accused Mr. Ganey of “hiring away” one of Rescuecom’s contractors. Based on this completely false and fictional accusation, Rescuecom – through its counsel, the Talarico Law Firm – terrorized Mr. Ganey with a $600,000 lawsuit. While any good lawyer would have recognized this as a shake-down, Mr. Ganey, who has no legal training, was genuinely and understandably shaken by Mr. Talarico’s very intimidating lawsuit. He was further shaken by the utterly gratuitous and unnecessary conduct of Mr. Talarico in sending his process servers to serve Ganey with the amended complaint. Mr. Talarico knew the undersigned represented Mr. Ganey. We had spoken on the phone and engaged in correspondence. Yet, instead of asking the undersigned to simply accept service of an amended complaint (as is the universal practice), Mr. Talarico sent his process servers to personally serve Ganey. Based upon the facts communicated to me, it is the undersigned’s professional opinion based upon 15 years of practice as a rather aggressive litigator that Mr. Talarico intended his process server to “send a message.” Message received.

Rescuecom’s aggressively-served Amended Complaint entirely and abjectly abandoned its $600,000 claim. This is a clear admission that the $600,000 claim never had any substance, and was interposed without even the most cursory diligence, for its in terrorem value alone. Simply put, Mr. Talarico made up a claim and tried to bully Mr. Ganey into settlement. This is conduct unbecoming a lawyer. Mr. Talarico should be ashamed of himself.

Ganey commented, “I called Rescuecom to fix a router in my home. Not only did Rescuecom fail to solve my problem, when I disputed the charges, Rescuecom retaliated by filing false court papers. It’s time people stood up to thuggish companies like Rescuecom and the lawyers that enable them.”

Snyder commented, "In my 15 years as a trial lawyer, I have never seen a service business treat a customer as poorly as Mr. Ganey has been treated by Rescuecom. Nobody should have to put up with the abuse that Rescuecom has inflicted on Mr. Ganey. We gave Rescuecom and its lawyers every opportunity to back off. Rescuecom insisted on having this fight. We relish the opportunity to take this case to trial and look forward to having a jury decide whether Rescuecom's business tactics are acceptable."

John H. Snyder PLLC is a Manhattan-based law firm advising technology companies and their senior executives. Founder John H. Snyder, a graduate of Harvard Law School, is ranked as a “Top 100” commercial litigator in New York State and has been named to SuperLawyers every year since 2013. Snyder was named a “Top 40 Under 40” Litigator in New York State in 2014-15.